TRIBUTE


COL. BRUCE HAMPTON 1947 - 2017


One and One is Two, But What is One?


by Michael Buffalo Smith The first time I met Col. Bruce Hampton, it


was through a direct connection with my long- time friends in Spartanburg, Jim and Susan Brown. The Colonel loved the Browns, and would often visit with them when he was in the Upstate, and of course they would travel to other cities to see Gov’t Mule, Susan Tedeschi, and of course, Col. Bruce. One sunny afternoon the Browns and the


Colonel were at their house gathered around the swimming pool. Bruce was floating on his back with only his nose and his belly above the water. I knew I had to write a song about it, and so was born “Buddha in a Swimming Pool,” a song that owes more than a little to Col. Bruce’s influence. The song appeared on my album Southern Lights in 2003. I gave the album to the Colonel, and he was tickled. He told me that only two people had written songs about him, myself and Susan Tedeschi. I laughed and told him “anything that puts my name together in the same sentence with Susan Tedeschi’s name was worth it!” We had a good laugh. Matter of fact, when I think of Bruce, I


think of laughter. Because of Jim, Bruce and I be- came friends, and he also grew to love my wife, Jill. She was a professional astrologer. The first time he was in our house, he looked her over and told her, “both of you girls are Gemini’s,” a gift he had that none of us understand. Telling you your sign was one thing, but he would tell you your birthday. He proceeded to tell her her exact birth- day, including the time of day. Needless to say, she became of a Col. Bruce fan. She never under-


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stood his music, but that didn’t matter. When she’d read his chart, they would get into conver- sations that went on for hours. I could have gone and walked the dogs and nobody would even know I’d left the room.


I remember sitting in a tent one night in


Alabama at Skeeterfest. It was me, the late Ray Brand of the Crawlers who played on two of my albums, and the Colonel. He had on his suit and tie, which he and his band The Code Talkers had taken to wearing after being schooled by Hubert Sumlin on the importance of dressing nice on- stage. Bruce had a cloth and he was trying to get the mustard off of his white shirt. Not unlike my- self, Bruce seemed to always have food drip onto his shirt. It was freezing cold outside, and the Skeeters had a heater in the tent for us to warm up. I remember Bruce and the band getting up on that stage 30 minutes later and rocking it out. It was a great show that also featured Russell Gulley


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